Claude Jutra; Director Is Found Drowned
The body of award-winning film director Claude Jutra, who disappeared from his Montreal apartment last November, has been found in the St. Lawrence River, police in Quebec told the Associated Press Thursday.
A former medical student who turned to drama at Montreal’s Theater of the New World, the French-Canadian was probably best known as a leading Canadian exponent of cinema verite.
His best known films were the semi-autobiographical “A Tout Prendre” (Take It All) in 1963 and “Mon Oncle Antoine” in 1971, the latter a haunting tale of a boy’s growing up in rural Quebec.
An autopsy showed that Jutra, who was believed to have suffered from the degenerative Alzheimer’s disease and was identified by a tattoo under his right arm,, died from drowning. He would have been 57 last month.
Police found a note in a money belt on the body which said in French, “My name is Claude Jutra.”
At his Victorian home in an artist quarter of downtown Montreal, he had left behind notes to his friends saying that if he did not see them again soon, they would meet in the hereafter, police said.
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